Bloodstream
by goldtriforce
Summary: I think I might have inhaled you, I can feel you behind my eyes You've gotten into my bloodstream; I can feel you flowing in me *** Modern Zelink AU, where Link is socially inept, but somehow befriends the extremely peppy and social Zelda.
1. Chapter 1

Six minutes.  
Six minutes left, until Link could leave his hell hole of a classroom and return to his home to hate himself even more, but this time without anybody around to witness it.  
The class seemed to move slower than usual, with the professor still trying to teach (even though he knows mostly everyone is packed up and ready to go.)  
Link's gaze wandered around the room before settling on his classmate Zelda, who he was ultimately not very fond of, as she was everything he'd hope to be, such as refreshing and popular. You could say he hated her for it, even though he knew it wasn't her fault that everybody loved her. Not one bit.  
After looking at her for a good two minutes, four still remained, and during those four he contemplated the reasons for hating himself, and for why he can't be social. He came up with more than ten, and at the exact moment he looked up, the bell rang.  
Thank goodness, he thought to himself, whilst picking up his books and shoving them into his bag. On his way out the door, he lost focus and ended up running into Zelda, and nearly knocking her over.  
They made direct eye contact for a few moments before Link looked away, apologizing and walking off. He could hear Zelda's friends laughing, but not her own. Maybe she wasn't nearly as awful as he made her out to be. As he walked, he mentally scolded himself for being such an uncautious ass.  
"Link!" He could hear her from all the way down the corridor, but he didn't really care at that point, and would rather save the embarrassment.

When he arrived home, he threw his backpack on the dining room table and reached into his pockets for his phone, but nothing was there except for a few dollar bills and lone gum wrappers.  
Shit, he thought to himself. He just had to drop it in front of Zelda, the one person he'll probably never speak to again in his life.  
Taking a few pills and running upstairs, he quickly changed into a navy t-shirt and grey sweatpants. Back downstairs, Link quickly fell asleep on the couch. But a little bit less than an hour later, his peaceful slumber was rudely disturbed by his doorbell ringing. The reason for this unknown, as he doesn't order packages and doesn't have friends, he stood in front of the door, opening it slightly.  
The first thing he sees is a girl with blonde hair and bangs and bright, curious blue eyes. It took him a moment to realize it was Zelda, and she had his phone in her hand.  
"How do you know where I live?" Was the first thing to come to his mind, and the first thing he said.  
"You can hate me for this, but I had to look in your maps app to find your house." She handed him his phone and looked up, a small frown on her face.  
Link took his phone and smiled gently. "Thank you. I appreciate it."  
He was about to shut the door, but Zelda noticed something on his arm. A genuinely concerned look was on her face.  
Link followed her gaze to his arm, where a very large scar was. "Oh, you.. This is from a car accident. The window shattered and glass got everywhere. I'm not.. I don't harm myself intentionally." But I am a bit depressed, he thought to himself, but that wasn't something he was going to share with someone he didn't know.  
She sighed, relieved. "Well, I'll be going now. I'll see you around, yeah?"  
"Yeah, sure." Zelda looked up at Link and smiled, before walking off to her car in front of his driveway, and waving once before leaving.  
When he shut the door, he sighed in relief and layed back on the couch to continue his nap.

The next day, Zelda casually greeted Link in the morning as if they were friends now, which they weren't.  
Throughout his classes, he sat alone but in the classes he had with Zelda, she would turn around and wave at him, but he didn't wave back or anything to that effect as he didn't want to ruin his reputation. Besides, she was too popular to even consider befriending a lonely student like himself.  
And finally, at the end of the day, she confronted him, when all of her friends had already left. "Why didn't you wave back to me?" She said.  
She sounded a bit defeated, or disappointed, but he couldn't tell why as he hadn't done anything wrong, albeit being impolite. (But what's the point in waving to someone you're not friends with?)  
He tipped his head slightly to the side in confusion, before thinking of a response. "I just.. um, Zelda, we're not really friends. I don't mean to offend you, but wasting your time to return something to me doesn't make me someone close to you. It just makes you a kind person."  
"Well, alright. But I'm going to keep trying until you can consider me a friend. Bye!" She grinned before walking off. He mentally kicked himself for being such an impolite person, and walked home to end another day on his couch.


	2. Chapter 2

When Link woke up the following Sunday morning, he made his way downstairs to see none other than his uncle, who had been on a seemingly endless business trip.  
Neither of them spoke to each other, as the atmosphere was tense and there wasn't really anything to discuss, but his uncle finally broke the silence with the few generic questions an uncle would ask his nephew.  
"How's school?" Was the first question. Link expected it, it's something that's generally asked when you see a family member you don't see often but still are forced to speak with.  
"Uh, it's alright I suppose." He replies, not wanting to mention that he was still struggling to turn in all of his essays and projects.  
"Have you made any friends?" There was a long, uncomfortable pause, as Link wasn't really sure how to respond. His uncle knew he struggled to socialize, but still tormented him by bringing it up. "Um.. well, not really. There's a girl in my class, she thinks we're friends, but I don't think we are."  
Link's uncle smirked and leaned against the counter he was standing in front of, looking straight at Link. "A girl? What situation caused her to want to befriend you?"  
Link cringed at the question, but explained what happened to his uncle.  
"The other day, I was on my way home but I was careless and accidentally ran into her, and dropped my phone, and she used the maps app I have to find our house, and she gave me my phone back, and the day after she kept trying to talk to me, but I had to explain that being a good person doesn't make you their friend, and she said she's going to keep trying. I don't know why, but it's her problem, not mine."  
"You should at least try to be friendly to her. You're not going to get anywhere in life if you avoid people at all costs." His uncle responded. Link knew that he wasn't a very kind man, as he'd always tease Link, but sometimes he would say something sensible that made Link despise him less.  
Link nodded and made his way over to the couch, to spend the rest of his day avoiding his homework and watching sports instead.

* * *

The next morning, Link, dreading Mondays, walked to school alone. His uncle left him a note on the fridge to try to befriend the girl he told him about, but he knew he couldn't just randomly approach her and ask to hang out. Especially since she's almost always surrounded with other friends.  
Later, in his literature classroom, he was scolded by the teacher in front of everyone for not turning in yet another assignment. She didn't understand it was hard for him to focus, but he wasn't going to correct her as it was inevitably his fault for being unable to do his school work. He heard a few small giggles from his classmates, which he ignored, sitting back in his desk and trying to think of what to do for his paper.  
In his next few classes, he was told the same thing, that he needs to finish his work. It was the end of the grading period so it had to be turned in before the following weekend. Link didn't bother telling the teachers of why he was so bad at doing his work, and he just promised to work on what he hadn't finished.  
"Link, you're going to need a tutor." One of his teachers said, but he couldn't think of anyone to ask. Zelda was good at getting her work done, she was one of the top students, but he couldn't ask her.  
As if reading his mind, she approached him after school, like she had before, when he was walking outside.  
"Could I help you study?" It was a pretty blunt question, but there was a good chance she had heard his teachers bitch at him, and there wasn't anything else to really ask besides what she did.  
He nodded, shrugging simultaneously.  
"Great.. um, would you like to go get coffee? We can study there, if you're not busy." Link had absolutely no idea why she wanted to study with him, despite her saying the previous week that she had wanted to befriend him, but he went along with it.  
Link truly wasn't busy at all, he planned on getting home and taking a nap before attempting to start his homework, but since she was kind enough to offer, he didn't refuse. "Sure, are we just going to walk?" Zelda nodded, but turned around, pointing in the opposite direction of where they were walking. "The coffee shop's over there, it's not far though."  
They both walked silently, and when they got their, Zelda helped him with his assignments as much as she could. It was kind of awkward, but after awhile they were both comfortable with each other, and Link got a lot more of his homework done with her than he would have by himself.  
After finishing their homework, there was a long awkward pause, and Link finally broke the silence with a thank you, since she had honestly helped him do more work in two hours than he would ever be able to do by himself.  
"It's no problem, really." She didn't mention it to him, but she only wanted to help him because it would be a better chance to get more familiar with him, so they could become closer friends, and so that he wouldn't have to suffer the consequences of having bad grades.  
"Well, it's time for me to go home for dinner, so I suppose I'll see you tomorrow." Link picked up his backpack and placed all of his folders and pens inside of it, and threw away his trash, waving to Zelda on his way out. She smiled and waved back to him kindly, but didn't leave for awhile.

* * *

At home, he was greeted by his uncle, who was acting rather polite that day. "Did you talk to the girl?" Was the first thing he asked, to which Link replied with, "She helped me study and get some work done." He set his backpack on the table before running upstairs to change into more comfortable clothes.  
As he walked down the stairs, he could smell dinner being cooked, something he hasn't witnessed often, but it was something he was grateful for nonetheless, since he usually didn't have big meals because of his lack of motivation.  
Dinner was more amazing than he thought it would be, and Link didn't realize how much of a wonderful cook his uncle was. "Thank you for the meal, I'm gonna go to bed early, I'm worn out."  
"No problem. Rest well." Link took a couple sleeping pills and retreated up to his bedroom, and for once dreamt of something pleasant.


End file.
